Jennings Escapes Death, Focuses On Nfl

Fsu's Bradley Jennings, Wounded In A South Florida Carjacking, Now Awaits The Draft.

April 18, 2002|By Josh Robbins, Sentinel Staff Writer

Nearly three weeks have passed since a carjacker fired a handgun and nearly killed former Florida State linebacker Bradley Jennings.

Jennings still can't understand why anyone would do such a thing, but he feels he knows why he escaped death.

"A lot of people say everything happens for a reason, but I just feel like it wasn't my time to go," Jennings said. "God wasn't ready for me to go and He put me on this earth for a reason. I'm not done with what I've got to do and what I've got to accomplish in life. I feel like football is one of the gifts He blessed me with."

So much of what Jennings intends to accomplish rides on this weekend's NFL draft that he may forever wonder what could have been.

What if he didn't go out for a jog in northwest Miami's Myrtle Grove Park early in the evening of March 30?

The incident left Jennings with a gunshot wound that went through his right shoulder and superficial scrapes on his neck and rib cage. Though the shoulder injury was not serious -- Jennings was released from Jackson Memorial Hospital early the next morning -- it has prevented Jennings from working out for interested NFL teams.

Jennings, 24, entered this spring something of a question mark as far as the draft goes. A three-year starter at middle linebacker for Florida State, Jennings made a career-high 121 tackles as a senior and earned first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors. But he missed FSU's final two games after arthroscopic surgery to repair a lateral cartilage tear in his right knee.

The knee injury left Jennings unable to run until February, and then he ran the 40-yard dash in a disappointing 4.86 seconds at FSU's pro timing day on March 21. In another attempt, he did not break five seconds.

"We ran on wet grass," Jennings said. "Two or three days before, my trainer timed me in the 40 and I ran a 4.60. Overall, coming off of knee surgery, I think I did OK. "

Jennings had a workout scheduled for April 2 with the Miami Dolphins that would have provided him a second chance to impress NFL scouts. That workout never happened because of the gunshot wound.

Now Jennings (6 feet 2 1/2, 255 pounds) finds himself in limbo, hoping some team will take a chance on him.

"My feeling is he's probably a late-round pick. I think a lot of teams were disappointed with his 40 times," said longtime NFL draft analyst Dave-Te Thomas. "If you're looking for a good first- or second-down inside linebacker, I think Bradley Jennings would be a steal for a team on the second day [of the draft]."

This is, by all accounts, a down year for draftable linebackers. ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. ranks just one -- Northwestern outside linebacker Napoleon Harris -- among his top 25 prospects. Kiper considers Jennings the draft's eighth-best inside linebacker, five spots behind Florida's Andra Davis.

Florida State linebacker coach Joe Kines, a former NFL assistant, called Jennings "a good, solid inside linebacker prospect." Kines also said Jennings is a pleasure to coach and a ferocious hitter who showed improvement in pass coverage as a senior.

Last Saturday, Jennings married his girlfriend of six years, Carmen. They have a son, Bradley Jr., who turns 3 on Friday.

Jennings plans to watch the draft from his parents' home in Miami. It's fitting that family will surround him because the carjacking incident has given him a new perspective.

"It teaches you to value your life," he said. "It shows how basically all the things that you love can be taken away from you. You can be taken away from all the people who love you. I'm talking about a matter of seconds or minutes. That's one of the reasons why you always tell the people you love you love them."